Japanese art
The Art and the Architecture Japanese, work of art produced with the Japan since the first traces discovered, in the surroundings of the X {{E}} thousand-year-old before J. - C., until our days.
Throughout the history, the Japan underwent sudden attacks of external ideas and new, followed long periods of fold on itself. With the wire of time, the Japanese developed the capacity to integrate, imitate and finally to assimilate and to adapt these elements resulting from foreign cultures by supplementing them their own esthetic preferences. The first complex arts of the Japan were created during after J. - C. in connection with the Bouddhisme. At the time of the 9th century, whereas the Japan started to be diverted China and to develop indigenous forms of expression, the profane arts are reflected to take an incredible importance. These forms of art, as well as the religious art, flowered until the end of the 15th century. After the war of Ônin (, Ônin No Ran ) (1467 - 1477), Japan entered during one time of political, social and economic disturbances which lasted almost a century. In the State which emerged thereafter under the yoke of the clan Tokugawa (), the religion played a less important part and the forms of art which survived it were primarily profane.
The Peinture is the artistic means of expression favorite in Japan, practiced as well by professionals as by amateurs. The Japanese wrote with a Pinceau rather than with a Stylo until our modern time and their familiarity with the techniques of the brush made them particularly sensitive to the pictorial values. With the rise of the popular culture during the era Edo (), a type of prints named Ukiyo-e () became a major art and its techniques were thereafter sophisticated, which made it possible to produce color impressions of the things of the every day, book of school to the pornography. The Sculpture was an artistic means of expression less snuffed; most of the Japanese sculptures is related to the Religion and its use declined at the same time as the importance given to the Buddhist tradition. The ceramic Japanese women, representing one of the first artefacts of this civilization, are classified among most famous of the world. In architecture, the Japanese have a marked preference for natural materials and the interactions between interior and external spaces.
Japanese art is characterized by esthetic oppositions. For example, in ceramics of the prehistoric periods, the exubérance was followed by a disciplined and refined style. Another case of figure is provided by two structures of the 16th century diametrically opposite: the Palais of Katsura (, Katsura rikyû ) is a exercise of simplicity stressing natural and rough materials, and shows an affinity for the not-required beauty; the Mausolée of Tôshôgû () to Nikko () is a rigid symmetrical structure covered on each one of its visible surfaces of coloured relief engravings with glare. The Japanese art, developed not only by its simplicity but also by its exubérance coloured, considerably influenced the Western painting of the 19th century (with the Japonisme) and the Western architecture of the 20th century.
art Jômon
First colonists of Japan, during the era known as Jômon () (approximately 11000 with 300 av. J. - C.) because of the name of twisted decorations (, jômon jidai ) typical of the potteries of this time, were hunters-gatherers who finished by sédentariser, to make agriculture and breeding and finally to build towns of several hundreds, even thousands, inhabitants. They manufactured simple thatch and wood houses installed in not very deep holes dug in the ground, which provided heat coming from the sol.
The potteries of the proto-jômon, discovered on the whole of Japan, are characterized by a pointed bottom which made it possible to insert them in the ground to make them hold. Later appeared flat-bottomed and circular potteries in the south of the Hokkaidô () and the north of the Tôhoku ().
The average time (Chûki,) is characterized by vases on high and worked board whose collar and handles make enormous very decorated volutes, which does not return them any more very fonctionnelles.
Recent and posterior Jômon see appearing a large variety of forms, influences bronze crockery chinoise.
These potteries were generally not painted, apart from some examples tardifs.
One also finds clay figurines called Dogû () and crystal jewels.
The art of Yayoi
The following wave of immigrants was that of the Yayoi (), named thus in connection with the district of Tokyo () where the first remainders of their colonization were found. They arrived at Japan towards 350 av. J. - C. and settled first of all in the north of Kyûshû (), bringing their knowledge on the Riz irrigated iculture and on the manufacture of the Cuivre and the Bronze. One finds even some rare objects in Fer. They show a greater artisanal skill than people of Jômon. Their decorative style is simple and discrete, releasing a kind of dignity quiet. Yayoi seems to be civilized, peaceful and to be refined and to have developed an apparently rational and serene religious conscience. The preference for the artistic purity makes think of the bases principles Shintô () which one thinks that it developed with this époque.The principal ritual objets d'art of this period are the mirrors, the Magatama (or), the sabers ceremonial and the Dôtaku (, bells without leaf of unknown use).
Ceramics
The appearance of the turn and a cooking to the furnace at higher temperature make it possible the potters of Yayoi to carry out more sophisticated ceramics by creating a new type of vases, large, with fine walls and seldom painted, characterized by a simple form and a smooth surface. Possible decorations red or are incised in horizontal bands, striated or composed of zigzags. The types of potteries found at this period are bowls decorated with the comb, earthenware jars with lid or broad paunch and widened collar and high ballot boxes. Starting from the middle of the period appear also goblets, bottles with narrow collar, vast containers with high foot, handle ewers and cuts.
Metallurgical arts
The swords of war imported in Japan were lengthened and widened and were used in times of peace for the burials. The parts bronzes some most original of this era are the Dôken () and dôboko () (lances in the shape of paddles), discovered with Kyûshû, and the dôtaku discovered with the Kinki () in full center of the Honshû ().
the art of Kofun and the haniwa
The third, and last, period of Japanese prehistory are the era Kofun (, kofun jidai , approximately 250 with 552 a. J. - C.), name which also defines the funerary hillocks built at that time per thousands in many areas. It is also called era Yamato (, yamato jidai ). It is different from the Yayoi culture either by an internal development, or by an external force. For this period, many groups form political alliances and are assembled in a nation.
The kofun
These tumuli is thus important for this period of the Japanese history at the point to give him their name. They represent the only information source on the Japanese people of this time. Oldest are especially in the plain of Yamato. Most imposing, slightly posterior, are imperial mausoleums and are in the plain of Kawachi in the Préfecture of Osaka. Most beautiful of them, located close to the port, are allotted to the emperors known as “legendary”: Ôjin and Nintoku.The typical objects of the kofun are mirrors bronzes some (, Kagami ), the magatama and especially of the clay sculptures called Haniwa () set up outside the tombs. From Ve century, one also finds objects out of gilded bronze testifying to a new equestrian culture and soldier (openwork clamps, heaumes, pommels…). Funerary furniture can however contain many various objects, variable according to the periods, like potteries, domestic objects…
The haniwa
The haniwa are terra cotta statuettes directly associated with the kofun . One finds them laid out on the tertres.The first haniwa appeared in the Préfecture of Okayama (, Okayama-ken ) and were only of simple earthenware jars provided with a foot. They become cylindrical first of all at the beginning of IVe century, then gradually take the shape of objects, animals, human beings. Their provision also varies with the wire of time. The great diversity of the figurines Anthropomorphe S give us an outline of the company which created them.
Reasons in chokkomon
The interior rooms of the kofun , in particular in the Kyûshû, could be decorated. Oldest comprise triangles painted in red and black. The sarcophagi could also be decorated with incised reasons or peints.The dominant reasons are in connection with the last voyage of the heart (horses, birds, boats) or abstract (magic spirals, concentric circles, double loops in C). These chokkomon (, decorations of right-hand sides and curves) is one of the characteristic of Kofun, where they do one their first appearances, but they will become thereafter one of dominant of Japanese art. One can admire some in particular in the tomb of Senzoku () in the prefecture of Okayama, with the tumulus of Idera (), Préfecture of Kumamoto (, Kumamoto-ken ) or with the kofun of Sekijinyama () in the Préfecture of Fukuoka (, Fukuoka-ken ).
the art of the periods Asuka and Nara
The first significant invasion of the continental Asian culture which arrived at Japan produced during the eras Asuka (, Asuka jidai ) and Nara (, Nara jidai ), called thus in connection with the name of the place where the Japanese government sat: in the valley of Asuka of 552 with 710 and in the city of Nara until in 784.
The propagation of the Bouddhisme causes the initial impulse of the contacts between the Korea, the China and the Japan, and the Japanese recognized facets of the Chinese Culture which could be profitably integrated in theirs: a system allowing to put the written ideas and sounds; the Historiography; complex theories of government such as a effective Bureaucracy; but especially, concerning arts, of the leading-edge technologies, novel methods of construction, the methods even more advanced to run the Bronze and of new means and techniques of painting.
During all VIIe and VIIIe century, however, the main subject of contacts between Japan and the continent of Asia was the development of Buddhism. All the specialists are not of the same opinion on the significant dates and the suitable names to allot to the various periods between 552, official date of the introduction of Buddhism to Japan, and 784, when the capital was transferred from Nara (). The most frequent designations are this says the period Suiko (, 552 - 645), the era Hakuhô (, 645 - 710) and the era Tenpyô (, 710 - 784).
Hôryû-ji
The first Buddhist structures having perduré in Japan and old timber constructions of Far East are with the Hôryû-ji (), in the south-west of Nara. The first building work started at the beginning of VIIe century as a private temple of the prince Shôtoku () made up of 41 independent buildings. Most important of them are the called principal room of worship Kondô (, gold room) and Gojû-No-Tô (, Pagode on five floors) located at the center of an open space surrounded by a covered Cloître. Kondô, in the style of the Chinese rooms of worship, is a covered structure on two floors of a irimoya (, roof with pinions of ceramics tiles).Inside Kondô, on a broad rectangular platform, some of most important sculptures of the period are the. The central representation is a Bouddha Shaka () flanked of two Bodhisattva S, a sculpture out of bronze run in 623 by the sculptor Kuratsukuribe No Tori in homage to prince Shotoku recently deceased. The Shi Tennô (, " four kings célestes" , guards of the horizons and the Buddhist law), engraved in wood around 650 by Yamaguchi No Atai Oguchi (), are posted with the four corners of the platform. Preserved in a museum set up in 1941 beside the whole of Hôryû-ji, the “temple” Tamamushi No Zushi (), wood counterpart of Kondô, is placed on a high basis out of wood decorated by figurative paintings on center-Asian Laque with style, and élytres of coleopters (called tamamushi in Japanese). These representations count among the oldest paintings found in Japan.
Tôdai-ji
The temples carried out during VIIIe century concentrate around the Tôdai-ji () of Nara. Built a such " district général" of a network of temples through the various provinces, Tôdai-ji is the most ambitious religious complex set up during the first centuries of Buddhist worship in Japan. Consequently, the Buddha of one meter twenty (completed in 752), or Daibutsu (), is a Rushana Buddha (), figure representing the bouddheity, as well as Tôdai-ji which represented the center of Buddhism impérialement supported and his propagation through Japan. Only some fragments of the original statue survived and current central Bouddha and building are reconstitutions of the era Edo.Many secondary buildings were grouped all around Daibutsuden () on a slightly tilted hillside. Among them, the Hokkedô (), with its principal representation: the Fukûkensaku Kannon (, the most popular bodhisattva), manufactured in lacquer dries ( kanshitsu ,) with which the technique consists in covering a form (in fact a wood reinforcement) with impregnated fabric bands of hemp of lacquer; the Kaidanin (, room of ordination), with its beautiful statues of Shi Tennô of the 8th century out of not cooked ground; and the attic (, will kura ) called Shôsô-in (). This last rectangular structure in three parts, perched on 40 2,4 meters high pillars and built around 760 out of wood of cypress, which was first of all used to garner rice, was used as of VIIIe century to store more than 3000 various objects coming mainly from the collections of Japanese and center-Asian objects joined together by the emperor Shômu () and the empress Kôken (), like for hiding governmental documents… This unit constitutes oldest " thus; Museum " world and represents a priceless source of knowledge. Therefore the objects were transferred in 1953 then in 1962 in two new reinforced concrete structures to protect them from possible fires. Shôsô-in, as for him, was restored in 1883.
Heian
In 794, the capital of Japan is officially transferred to Heian-kyô (, current the Kyôto,) and this until in 1868. The era Heian (, Heian jidai ) indicates one period going of 794 with 1185, date completion of the Guerre of Gempei (). This period, moreover, is divided into old Heian and recent Heian, or time Fujiwara (, Fujiwara jidai ), the date pivot being 894, year when the exchanges between the imperial embassy and China ceased officially. The second period is thus named in connection with the family Fujiwara (, Fujiwara-shi ), then most powerful of the country, which acted as a regent of the emperor but who became in fact a true civil dictator.
Art of old Heian
In reaction to the prosperity and the growing capacity of the Buddhism organized in Nara, the priest Kûkai () (more known under its posthumous title: Kôbô Daishi, 774 - 835) travelled as far as China to study the Shingon (), a form of Buddhism Vajrayana which it introduced in Japan in 806. In the center of the Shingon worship, are various Mandala S (), diagrams of the spiritual universe which influenced the style of temple. The Japanese Buddhist architecture adopted of which the Stupa in its Chinese shape of pagoda.
The temples set up for this new sect were built in the mountains, far from the court and of the laymen of the capital. The irregular topography of these sites obliged the Japanese architects to reconsider the problems of construction of the temples and thus to choose more elements of decoration autochtones. Roofs in bark of cypress replaced those in ceramics tiles, of the planks of wood were used in the place of the grounds out of ground and a place of separate worship was added opposite the principal sanctuary for the laic ones.
The temple which illustrates best the spirit of the Shingon temples of the beginning of Heian is the Murô-ji () (beginning of the 9th century), located right in the middle of a forest of cypress on a mountain at the south-west of Nara. The wood representation of the Shaka () (beginning of the 9th century), the Buddha " historique" , piously preserved in a secondary building at Murô-ji, is typical sculptures of the beginning of Heian, with its imposing body, covered with draped marked carved in the style Hompa-shiki () (clothing in vagueness) and its austere and contained expression. The pagoda on five floors dating from the end of the 8th century is, with its 16,2 meters the height, smallest of Japan.
Art under Fujiwara
During the Fujiwara era, Buddhism Jôdo (, Buddhism of the " Ground pure"), which offered an easy safety thanks to the belief in Amida (, the Buddha of the Paradise of the west), became popular. In opposition, the nobility of Kyôto () developed a company devoted to the research of esthetic elegance. Their world was so beautiful and reassuring that they could not conceive that the Paradise of it was quite different. The room of Amida, mixing the monk and the layman, shelters an image or more Buddha inside a structure resembling the " manoirs" of the nobility.
The hôôdô (, room of the phoenix, completed in 1053) of the Byôdô-in (), a temple in the Uji (, uji-shi ) in the south-east of Kyôto, is the type even " Amida" rooms; Fujiwara time. It is constituted of a flanked rectangular principal structure of two wings of L-shaped corridors and of a corridor of tail, located at the edge of a broad artificial pond. Inside, a single gilded representation of Amida (approximately 1053) is placed on a high platform. This sculpture was carried out by Jôchô (, died in 1057) which used new guns of proportion as well as a novel method ( Yosegi ,) which consists in cutting a statue in several pieces of wood and to assemble them by the interior. On the walls the wood reliefs coloured of 52 effigies of Bosatsu (Bodhisattva) are engraved which accompany Amida in its descent by the Paradise of the west to accommodate the heart of faithful to their death and to bring back them in petals of lotus. This descent, called Raigô (), painted on the doors out of wooden of the hôôdô , is a precursory example of the Yamato-e () (style of Japanese painting) because it contains representations of the landscapes around Kyôto. The hôôdô currently became a museum.
At the time of the last century of the Heian era, the Emaki (, horizontal roller illustrating of the literary or religious texts) takes importance. Dated from the surroundings of 1130, the illustration of the Genji Monogatari (or: Known as of Genji) a major work of Japanese painting represents. Written at the beginning of the 11th century by Murasaki Shikibu (), a lady-in-waiting of the Akiko empress (), this famous milked news of the life and affairs of prince Genji () (towards the end of the 10th century) and of the world of the court of Heian after its death. The artists of the emaki of the 12th century worked out a system of pictorial conventions which visually transmit the emotional contents of each scene. In second half of the century, a different style, more alive, of narrative illustration became popular. The Round of applause Dainagon Ekotoba (, end of the 12th century, collection Sakai Tadahiro), rollers which tell an intrigue at the court, depicts characters moving with rapids blows of brush and bright colors.
the art of the era Kamakura
In 1180, a civil war bursts between two military clans: the Will conceal () and the Minamoto (); five years after, Minamoto leave victorious and establish a governmental seat in fact on the shore of the village of Kamakura () which remained thus until in 1333. With the displacement of being able of the nobility to the warlike class, arts must fill a new audience: soldiers, of the men devoted to arts of the war; priests engaged to make Buddhism accessible to the illiterate commun runs; and the conservatives, the nobility and some members of the clergy who regret the decline of the power of the court. Consequently, realism, a popular tendency, and a revival of classicism characterize the art of the Kamakura (, Kamakura jidai ).
Sculpture
Sculptors of the school known as of Kei, and particularly Unkei () (v. 1148 - 1228), created a new style, more realistic, of sculpture. The two representations of the Nor-O (1203) of the nandaimon (, large door of the south) of Tôdai-ji with Nara illustrate the particularly realistic dynamic style of Unkei. The statues, of approximately 8 meters in height, were carved in many blocks for one 3 months period, a prowess indicating the development of a system of workshop of craftsmen working under the direction of a Master sculptor. The sculptures polychromées out of wood, carried out by Unkei in 1208, preserved at the Kôfuku-ji () in Nara and representing two wise Indians, Muchaku and Seshin, the legendary founders of the sect Hossô-shû (), constitute the most realistic work created for this period. They are remarkably realistic and individualized representations.
Penmanship and painting
The Kegon Engi Emaki (), emaki describing the foundation of the sect Kegon-shû (), is an excellent example of the popular tendency of the painting of the Kamakura period. The sect Kegon, one of principal of the Nara era, knew difficult days with the ascent of the sects Jôdo (Pure Ground). After the War of Gempei () (1180 - 1185), the Myôe priest of the temple Kôzan-ji () sought to give again dash with the sect and provides a refuge to the women made widowed by this war. The widows of samurais, even among the noble ones, did not want any more to study another thing that a syllabic system of transcription () of the sounds and ideas and the majority of them were unable to read texts employing of the Chinese ideograms. Thus, the Kegon Engi Emaki combines passages of text written with a maximum of syllables easy to read and illustrations which contain dialogs between the characters written close to those which speak, the made-to-order of the contemporary cartoons. The intrigue of this emaki , telling the lives of two Korean monks, called Japanese Gishô and Gengyô, who would have founded the Kegon-shû sect, is carried out with spirit and is filled of fantastic scenes such as a voyage in the palate of the King of the Ocean, and a poignant history of love. In a more conventional style is also carried out an illustrated version of the Diary of Murasaki Shikibu (, Murasaki Shikibu Nikki ). Versions emaki of its news continue to be produced but the nobility, accustomed to this new interest for the realism but however nostalgic of the old days of prosperity and being able, take again and illustrate the newspaper with an aim of making revive the splendor of the time of its author. One of the most beautiful passages illustrates the episode in which Murasaki Shikibu espièglement is espièglement retained captive in its room by two young courtiers while, with-outside, the moonlight gleams on a foam bench of a Ru of the imperial garden.
The art of Muromachi
During the Period Muromachi (), also called Ashikaga time (), a deep change occurred in the Japanese culture. The military clan of the Ashikaga () took the control of the shôgunat and returned his general headquarters to Kyôto, in the Muromachi district of the city. With the return of the government to the capital, the popular tendencies of the Kamakura era ended and the cultural expression took a more aristocratic and élitiste character. Buddhism Zen (), the sect Ch' year, traditionally supposed to have been founded in China at the time of the 6th century, was introduced for the second time in Japan and took root.
Painting
Thanks to the adventures of the laymen and the exchanges with China organized by the temples Zen, of many paintings and much of objets d'art are imported in Japan and deeply influence the Japanese artists who work for the Zen temples and the shôgunat. Not only these imports brings changes in the pictorial subjects chosen, but it modify in more the use of the color: let us tons sharp Yamato-e (or) yield the place to monochromic (, Sumi-e ) of painting to the way chinoise.
Typical of the painting of the beginning of Muromachi, the representation of the legendary monk Kensu (Chinese Hsien-tzu) at the time when it reaches the Éveil was carried out by the priest-painter Kaô (active at the beginning of the 15th century). This type of illustration was carried out with rapids blows of brush and a minimum of détails.
" How to catch a catfish with a water-bottle " (, Hyônen zu , approximately 1415, Taizô-in (), Myôshin-ji (), Kyôto), by the monk-painter Josetsu (), mark a turning in the painting of Muromachi, characterized by a recognition of the importance of the landscape. Originally stuck on a wood folding screen (, tsuitate ) to the back of which 30 poems on an apologue Zen were registered, this painting with ink was " remontée" thereafter in wall panel. It now includes/understands, in its upper part, the made up poems and penmanships by thirty monks accompanied contemporary scholars, in top on the right, of a foreword of Bonpô () which refers to work as being " new style pictural". In the lower part, in the foreground, a man is represented close to a brook, handling a water-bottle and looking at an enormous frétillant catfish. A fog occupies the center of the scene and, in background, appear remote mountains. The unit is characterized by a strong asymmetry. It is generally recognized that the " new style" refers more to a Chinese direction the depth from the point of view of the pictorial plan.
The principal artists of the Muromachi era are the priest-painters Shûbun () and Sesshû ().
Shûbun, a monk of the temple Shôkoku-ji () of Kyôto, carried out Lecture in a thicket of bamboo (, Chikusaidokushozu 1446, National museum of Tokyo), a realistic landscape with a deep passing in the espace.
Sesshû, contrary in the majority of the artists of the period, could go to China and thus study Chinese painting with its source. The Sansui Chokan (, Long roller of landscape , v. 1486, Mori Collection, Yamaguchi), one of its most accomplished works, depicts a continuous landscape through the four seasons.
Structure
Another major development of this period was the appearance of the Cérémonie of the (, chanoyu ) and of the house in which it takes place. The goal of the ceremony is to share one moment with friends who appreciate arts and to purify his spirit of worries of the daily life while receiving a bowl of with grace and refinement. The rustic style of the country house was adopted for the houses of the, stressing natural materials such as logs of wood covered with bark or braided straw.
the art of the era Momoyama
During the Period Azuchi Momoyama (, 1573 - 1603), a succession of military chiefs such as Oda Nobunaga (), Toyotomi Hideyoshi () and Tokugawa Ieyasu (), tried to bring peace and political stability to Japan after one period of almost hundred years of feats of arms. Nobunaga, initially minor war leader, acquired sufficient being able to take the control of the government in 1568 and, five years later, for évincer the last shôgun Ashikaga. Hideyoshi took the orders with dead of Nobunaga but its plans to found rules of hereditary succession of the capacity were thwarted by Ieyasu which establishes the shôgunat Tokugawa in 1603.
Structure
Two new forms of architecture were developed in answer to the military climate of the moment:- the Castle, a defensive structure built to shelter a feudal lord (, daimyô ) and his soldiers in crisis period;
- the shoin (), a room of reception and a space of study private indicated to reflect the relations of the lord with his vassal within a feudal company.
The ôhiroma (, big room of reception of the part external of the enclosure) of the castle Nijô () (17th century) in Kyôto is a traditional example of style '' shoin '' with its Tokonoma (, alcove), its windows giving on a garden organized carefully (due to Kobori Enshû ()) and of the spaces clearly differentiated for the Tokugawa lords and its vassal.
Painting
The most important school of painting of the Momoyama era was that of Kanô-ha () and the greatest innovation of the period was the formula developed by Kanô Eitoku () for the creation of monumental landscapes on Fusuma (, sliding doors). The decoration of the principal room facing the garden of the Jukô-in (), a subsidiary temple of the Daitoku-ji (, temple Zen of Kyôto), is probably the best existing example of the work of Eitoku. A massive plum tree and two pines are represented on a pair of fusuma to diagonally opposed corners, their trunks point out the vertical of the posts and their branches, extending on the right and on the left, unify the contiguous sides. The panel of Eitoku " Chinese Lions " , also in Kyôto, reveals the clear style of painting and highly coloured which preferred the samouraïs.Hasegawa Tôhaku (), a contemporary of Eitoku, developed a style somewhat different and more decorative for paintings of fusuma of great scale. In its Kaede zu byôbu (, " Sight of érable"), currently at the temple of Chishaku-in with Kyôto, it placed the tree trunk in the center and almost extended the branches to the edge of the composition, creating a work more punt and less architectonic than Eitoku but visually more sumptuous. Its folding screen with 6 panels Shôrin zu byôbu (, " Sight of pins" , National museum of Tokyo) is a masterly interpretation of a thicket of wrapped trees of fog to the monochromic Encre.
the art of the era Edo
The shôgunat Tokugawa acquired an uncontested control of the government in 1603 with its engagement to restore peace and the economic stability and policy of the country, which has as a whole be a success. The shôgunat survived until in 1867, when it was obliged to capitulate vis-a-vis the pressure of the Western nations for the opening of the country to the trade international.One of the prevalent topics of the Period Edo (, Edo jidai ) was the policy of oppression of the shôgunat and the attempts of the artists to escape its restrictions. The principal features which characterizes it are the closing of the country the abroads and to the attributes of their cultures, and the regulation of strict codes of the behavior touching with all the aspects of the life, as on the way of dressing itself, the person whom one marries or the activities that each one can or must practice.
In the first years of the Edo period, however, the impact of the Tokugawa policy was not completely felt and some of the finest architectural and pictorial works of Japan were produced: the Palate of Katsura with Kyôto and tables of Sôtatsu (), founder of the school Rimpa ().
Structure
The Imperial palace of Katsura, imitation of the palate of Prince Genji, contains a group of shoin which combines elements of traditional Japanese architecture with innovations. The totality of the complex is surrounded by a splendid garden with ways of walk.The city of Edo () répétitivement was répétitivement struck by the flames, which supported a simplified architecture facilitating the rebuildings. The structural timber was collected and preserved in the cities neighbouring at the approach of the winter, when arid time facilitates the propensity of the Incendie S. When a fire was controlled and extinguished, this wood was sent to Edo and of the whole lines of houses were quickly rebuilt.
Following the policy of the Sankin-kôtai () of the shôgun , the Daimyô made build broad houses and parks for the visitors, as much for their pleasure that for that of the guests. Kôrakuen is a park of this period which perduré and which is opened with the public for walks of afternoon.
Painting
Sôtatsu worked out a superb decorative style by recreating the topics of the traditional literature by using figures and reasons for nature, brilliantly coloured, laid out on funds of gilded sheets. The pair of folding screens Vagues in Matsushima (Freer Gallery off Art, Washington, D.C.) is one of its work more renommés.
One century later, Kôrin () works over again the style of Sôtatsu and creates splendid works in a kind which will be clean for him. Its more famous is probably the folding screens representing of the plum trees with red flowers and white flowers (Museum off art, Atami).
Prints and Bunjin-ga
The most famous school of the art in Occident east that of the Ukiyo-e () and of the prints of the " world flottant" , that of the Kabuki () and of the district of the plaisirs.
The impressions of ukiyo-e started to be produced at the end of the 17th century, but it is in 1764 that Harunobu created the first polychrome impression. The artists of the following generation, including Torii Kiyonaga () and Utamaro (, Kitagawa Utamaro), created elegant and sometimes perspicacious representations courtisans.
During the 19th century, the principal figure is Hiroshige (, Hiroshige Utagawa), creator of romantic and sentimental landscapes. The singular angles and the aspect through which he often sees the landscapes, as well as the work of Kiyonaga and Utamaro with their insistence on the flat plans and their strong linear contours, had a deep impact on the Western artists such as Edgar Degas or Vincent Van Gogh, called Japonisme.
Another school of painting, contemporary with the ukiyo-e , the Bunjin-ga (, or Nanga school), has a style based on the painting of Chinese well-read men. Whereas the artists of ukiyo-e choose to represent a life escaping the restrictions from the shôgunat Tokugawa, the artists of Bunjin-ga turn to the Chinese culture. This kind is well represented by works of Ike No Taiga () and Yosa Buson (), but also Tanomura Chikuden () and Yamamoto Baiitsu ().
Art after 1867
In the years which followed 1867, when the Empereur Meiji reached the throne, Japan was once again subjected to an intrusion of new foreign forms of culture. At the beginning of the 20th century, the European forms of art were readily introduced and their marriage with Japanese art produced remarkable constructions such as the Station of train of Tokyo () and the National Diète (, Kokkai-gijidō) which exist still nowadays.After the Second world war, it is especially the American art and the architecture which influenced Japan. Although the fear of the earthquakes restrict considerably the construction of Gratte-ciel, the technological advancements make it possible to the Japanese to build increasingly high and broad buildings and of more artistic appearance.
The Manga () were also drawn as of the era Meiji (, meiji jidai ), largely influenced by the Caricature S of the French newspapers and English who criticized the events of the moment and often had fun of the policy.
Graphics of video games combined with the development of the Informatique also constitute a new style of Article.
Painting
On the one hand, Japan accepted the Western influence and, in 1876, the Technological School of Art opened its doors, employing Italian professors to teach the methods européennes.
In addition, an opposite movement carried out by Okakura Kakuzo () and American Ernest Fenollosa encouraged the Japanese artists to preserve the topics and the techniques traditional while creating works more in agreement with the tastes contemporains.
At present, this opposition between the two artistic wills, Yoga (, painting of Western style) and Nihonga (, Japanese painting), are still of topicality.
Structure
The need to rebuild Japan after the Second world war caused a great stimulation near the Japanese architects and the Japanese buildings contemporary are classified among most famous of the world in term of technology and design of the form. The Japanese architect most known is Kenzo Tange (), whose sporting whole of Yoyogi (, built in 1964 for the Olympic Games of Tokyo) was worth an international reputation to him, is used itself for the perfection of the concepts of form and movement and of the choice of materials.
See too
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More illustrations (gallery attached to the article)
- Buddhist art
- Contemporary art Japanese
- Bibliography on Japan
- Japanese Architecture
- Japanese Sabers
External bonds
This selection of bonds will enable you to visualize more the works presented above as well as others, contemporary with these last.
In French
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the Guimet museum proposes virtual visits like some photographs.
- Art of Japan, particularly interesting for its virtual exposure
In English
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National Tokyo Museum - Collection of photographs of Japanese art all periods
- National Museum off Japanese History contains many photographs and galleries with " visiter" virtually
- The Tokugawa Art Museum contains in particular extracts of famous Genji Monogatari
- asianart.com: some photographs of the exposures and galleries
- Freer Gallery off Art: 121 pages of consultable photographs in line
- Metropolitan Museum off Art: contains some photographs of famous parts with explanatory pages of history of the art of Japan
- Denver Art Museum: some photographs
In Japanese
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Access to the gallery of National Nara Museum (interesting for the photographs)
Sources
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- Japan: Dictionary and civilization , Louis Frederic, Editions Robert Laffont, Collection Books, 1470 p, (1999) ISBN 2-221-06764-9
- the art from Japan , Miyeko Murase, Editions LGF - Book of Pocket, Collection Pochothèque, 414 p. (1996) ISBN 2-25313054-0
- Japanese art , Joan Stanley-Baker, Thames Editions & Hudson, Collection Universe of art, 213 p. (1990) ISBN 2-87811-016-1
- Japanese art , Christine Schimizu, Flammarion Editions, Collection Old Funds Art, 492 p. (1998) ISBN 2-08-012251-7
- the Art of old Japan , Danielle and Vadime Elisseeff, Mazenod Editions, 620 p. (1980) ISBN 2-85088-010-8
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